Thursday, February 21, 2013

More Rain

Setting
out from the campsite in Lota, we passed a horse drawn cart trundling down the
highway. I hadn't been expecting to see something like this in Chile, but it was
there nonetheless. It's always a bit of dichotomy to see a horse and buggy
cruising down a highway.

Just
down the road we came across a roadside stand where we stopped for breakfast.
The lady in charge made us a traditional Chilean drink called Mote con Huesillo.
It's almost like a sweet tea infused with slices of a peach and lots of cracked
wheat. Very tasty. They also served us some delicious breakfast
sandwiches.

The
family running the stand were all quite impressed by our trip and wanted to take
lots of pictures with us.

.

We
still continued to see lots of forestry. This is a sight I haven't seen since
leaving Oregon:

I
also kept seeing signs for Oregon:

Around
noon the rain started up, another reminder that the area we were in was the
Pacific Northwest's distant Chilean cousin.

Since
my new camera is not waterproof, I didn't take any pictures for the rest of the
day. We eventually reached Pucon, a small resort town in the Lakes district.
Unfortunately, it's the busiest week for of the year for Chilean Tourism, and
every Hostal that we tried was booked solid. After 30 minutes of riding between
Hostals in the rain, we finally found a place for 30,000 Pesos.

The
owner was quite nice and very talkative. As I was working on my computer, he
kept making me drinks and talking to me about Chile, the town of Pucan, and the
abdication of the Pope, all very important topics.